August
by goodbyeblueskies
Summary: There is a distinctive quality about the first of August. No DH spoilers. Subtle slash, RemusSirius.


Disclaimer: I own nothing, not even the bicycle. Not even _a_ bicycle. It's all very tragic.

There is a distinctive quality about the first of August; the heat seems to swell, and the summer sounds of laughter, footsteps pattering on sidewalks and splashing water fade to little more than a hushed buzzing. It is nature's reminder - its way of saying summer is ending, make the most of this time. By the second day of the month, the heat becomes bearable and the happy noise that has defined June and July returns as if nothing has happened. But as August begins, one can enjoy this mild silence and the sticky sun-sweat of skin.

Sirius Black didn't believe in silence. And on August 1, 1975, he didn't need any reminding that summer would soon be over as he traipsed riotously through the fields near Remus Lupin's house, belting a made-up and decidedly off-key song at the top of his lungs. Remus (who loved the unique magic of the start of August almost as much as he enjoyed silence on, really, any given day) trailed behind, looking bemused.

"Sirius," Remus began, certain he had just heard the words "Yo-ho!", "what are you singing?"

"A song about pirates," Sirius responded simply. Then, as if it were a perfectly logical explanation, he added, "Summer makes me think about pirates."

Remus shook his head to the sky and smiled.

He often thought that there could not possibly be a person on this earth more different from him than Sirius Black, but he could do not deny that his friend's unrelenting energy and inability to act like a sane person warmed him almost as much as the sun on this particular afternoon.

If it had not been for Sirius's surprise visit, Remus would undoubtedly have spent the day in the same way he had spent the entire time since he had gotten home from Hogwarts – reading, doing his summer homework, and cleaning. He enjoyed these things, which, he knew, as Sirius so often reminded him, was, "bizarre, really, Moony, that's just not _normal_," and he _was_ getting a bit bored. But he did not know how to be spontaneous. In the summer, without the influence of James and Sirius, Remus found himself unable to do anything that even resembled marauding.

When Sirius showed up on his doorstep, beaming and casting a brightness that the weather could never have hoped to achieve, Remus was glad of an excuse to get out of his house.

It would be nearly six months before Remus would realize that he was in love with Sirius, but on August 1, 1975, it was enough to waste the afternoon with his best friend.

"Moony!" Sirius called from somewhere up ahead, in a familiar voice that caused Remus to hurry his stride anxiously. It was his tone of discovery, which would, in Remus's experience, lead to Inevitable Mayhem and Almost Certain Danger.

He stopped short, bemused once again, as he approached Sirius and the thing he had discovered.

It was a Muggle bicycle, leaning against a tree.

Remus recognized the deviant look in Sirius's eye.

"Sirius…" he began in a warning voice, but Sirius was already swinging one leg over the bicycle and beginning to pedal away.

"Sirius!" Remus hissed more insistently. "That _belongs_ to someone. You can't just take it!"

"Moony!" Sirius responded, mocking the indignant tone. "Don't get your knickers in a twist, I'm only going to borrow it. But whomever it _belongs to_, it's their own fault, leaving it out in the open where all sorts of thieves and delinquents could get at it! _Not me_," he finished in exasperation, at Remus's raised eyebrows. "Anyway, hop on."

Remus's eyebrows shot up, if possible, even further. "I beg your pardon?"

"Hop on," Sirius repeated maddeningly, now positively grinning like the fool he was and gesturing towards the bicycle's handlebars. Remus backed away in alarm.

"No, no, no. Absolutely not."

Sirius was nodding, the smile on his face growing a bit wider.

"No, Sirius. You go on, have a ride if you must. I'll stay here, and – and rest," Remus said, and settled against the tree where the bicycle had been. He even closed his eyes in the pretense of resting.

"Come on, Moony!" Sirius whined. "I'll be careful, I promise!"

Remus sighed in a long-suffering sort of way, and knew that he was going to give in.

(About six months later, Remus would remember briefly wondering, as he climbed onto the handlebars of the bicycle, why it was that Sirius's grin could convince him to do just about anything.)

He should never have held Sirius to his promise, but then, when had he ever known Sirius to be careful? He squeaked in fear (an embarrassed blush crept immediately into his cheeks) as the bicycle rocketed across the field, its deranged rider deliberately zigzagging with reckless abandon. Remus clung as tightly as he could to the shaking handlebars and prayed for his life. "This is not the rule of bicycle-riding!" he shouted.

Perhaps it was the terror in his voice that caused Sirius to attempt to steer the bike at least in a straight direction, although the speed was still causing it to bounce uncontrollably over the grass. Remus was too afraid to look behind him, but even through his fear he was pleased by the sound of Sirius's delighted laughter. The latter rode the bike in a large circle through the field several times, and when Remus realized that he had not yet died nor been seriously injured, he began to relax. Sirius returned to the tree and the two tousled boys toppled gently to the ground, both of them flushed and breathless from laughing. Sirius propped the bicycle in its original position, and turning toward Remus, said, "You see, Moony? You can always trust me." The look on his face was oddly defiant, and almost sheepish.

(In February of 1976, this moment would replay itself in Remus's memory many times, lending itself to his opposing feelings of hope and confusion.)

"I know," he responded, wishing that he could speak louder than a whisper, and only secondly wondering why he felt that he was unable to.

They left the bike and returned to Remus's house as the sun and the first of August began to dim. Both of the boys were reluctant for Sirius to leave.

It was the first and last time that Sirius Black visited Remus Lupin in the summer of 1975. Typical, teenage boys getting into mischief and riding bicycles improperly. Simple. Ordinary.

When the Marauders boarded the Hogwarts Express on September 1, there was a subtle difference in the air around them, in their friendship. Remus thought of the bicycle, and decided it was completely unrelated.


End file.
